Patent analysis applications and corresponding user interface features

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are various embodiments for patent analysis applications. A computing device may parse an electronic version of a patent document by identifying a reference numeral in the at least one drawing and identifying portions of the detailed description of the claims section that comprises the reference numeral. The computing device may generate at least one user interface that comprises a textual reproduction of at least a portion of the patent document; identify a user interaction with the reference numeral in the portion of the at least one drawing as shown in the at least one user interface; and, in response to the user interaction with the numeral, cause at least a portion of the detailed description or claims that corresponds to the at least one reference numeral to be presented proximate to the numeral.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/389,194 entitled “PATENT ANALYSIS APPLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDING USERINTERFACE FEATURES,” filed Apr. 19, 2019, which claims the benefit ofand priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/660,948,entitled “PATENT ANALYSIS APPLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDING USER INTERFACEFEATURES,” filed Apr. 21, 2018, the contents of which being incorporatedby reference in their entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

Various websites and applications exist for browsing and looking atpatent publications and issued patents. Patents and patent publicationsare generally provided to the public as portable document format (PDF)or tagged image file format (TIFF) documents. As the claims of thepatent define its scope of protection, one having to analyze a patentmust repeatedly glance between a claim term, drawings, and acorresponding description of the claim term to understand the use of theclaim term.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed are various embodiments for patent analysis applications. Acomputing device may parse an electronic version of a patent document byidentifying a reference numeral in the at least one drawing andidentifying portions of the detailed description of the claims sectionthat comprises the reference numeral. The computing device may generateat least one user interface that comprises a textual reproduction of atleast a portion of the patent document; identify a user interaction withthe reference numeral in the portion of the at least one drawing asshown in the at least one user interface; and, in response to the userinteraction with the numeral, cause at least a portion of the detaileddescription or claims that corresponds to the at least one referencenumeral to be presented proximate to the numeral.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead being placed uponclearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a networked environment according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2A-2E are pictorial diagram of an example user interface renderedby a client device in the networked environment of FIG. 1 according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating one example of functionalityimplemented as portions of a patent processing application executed in acomputing environment in the networked environment of FIG. 1 accordingto various embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present application relates to patent analysis applications andcorresponding user interface features, as will be described. As notedabove, various websites and applications exist for browsing and lookingat patent publications and issued patents. Patents and patentpublications are generally provided to the public as PDF or TIFFdocuments. As the claims of the patent define its scope of protection,one having to analyze a patent must repeatedly glance between a claimterm, drawings, and a corresponding description of the claim term tounderstand the use of the claim term.

As such, the present disclosure relates to client- and server-sideapplications that reduce time in reviewing patent documents, such asissued patents and patent publications. These applications may simplifythe process of evaluating patents by having all the information on asingle page or user interface, as opposed to flipping between claims,description, and drawings. Accordingly, in various embodiments, acomputing device, such as a server, may be directed to parse anelectronic version of a patent document comprising at least (a) adetailed description, (b) a claims section, and (c) at least onedrawing. In various embodiments, parsing the electronic version of thepatent document may include applying an optical character recognitionprocess to the electronic document, obtaining a list of claim terms usedin the claims section, identifying instances of the claim terms used inthe detailed description, identifying at least one reference numeralcorresponding to the claim terms from the detailed description, andidentifying portions of the at least one drawing that comprises the atleast one reference numeral.

Further, the computing device may be directed to generate at least oneuser interface for presentation on a client device. The user interfacemay include, for example, a textual reproduction of at least a portionof the claims section as well as other portions of a patent document.The computing device may identify a user interaction with a claim termin the portion of the claims section in the at least one user interface.In response to the user interaction with the claim term, the computingdevice may cause a dialog to be presented proximate to the claim term,wherein the dialog comprises at least a portion of the detaileddescription that includes the claim term and/or the at least one drawingthat comprises the at least one reference numeral corresponding to theclaim term. The user interaction may include, for example, a hover-overevent being performed in association with the claim term or a selectionevent being performed in association with the claim term.

In additional embodiments, the at least one computing device may bedirected to generate a three-dimensional model of an objectcorresponding to the claim term using the at least one drawing, wherethe at least one drawing comprises a two-dimensional black-and-whiteline drawing. The three-dimensional model may be shown in the dialog ofthe at least one user interface or used as an augmented feature in anaugmented reality (AR) session. In this regard, the three-dimensionalmodel may be imposed as a virtual artifact in a video feed. Further, insome embodiments, the at least one computing device may be directed to,in response to the user interaction with the claim term, apply a colorto a portion of the at least one drawing that corresponds to the claimterm and/or apply a color to the instances of the claim term in thedetailed description. Artificial intelligence may be used along withdrawings and the detailed description (that describes each of thefeatures). Thus, the artificial intelligence may use the detaileddescription and the drawings to generate a three-dimensional model. Inthe following discussion, a general description of the system and itscomponents is provided, followed by a discussion of the operation of thesame.

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a networked environment 100 accordingto various embodiments. The networked environment 100 includes acomputing environment 103, and a client device 106, which are in datacommunication with each other via a network 109. The network 109includes, for example, the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide areanetworks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wired networks, wirelessnetworks, or other suitable networks, etc., or any combination of two ormore such networks. For example, such networks may comprise satellitenetworks, cable networks, Ethernet networks, and other types ofnetworks.

The computing environment 103 may comprise, for example, a servercomputer or any other system providing computing capability.Alternatively, the computing environment 103 may employ a plurality ofcomputing devices that may be arranged, for example, in one or moreserver banks or computer banks or other arrangements. Such computingdevices may be located in a single installation or may be distributedamong many different geographical locations. For example, the computingenvironment 103 may include a plurality of computing devices thattogether may comprise a hosted computing resource, a grid computingresource and/or any other distributed computing arrangement. In somecases, the computing environment 103 may correspond to an elasticcomputing resource where the allotted capacity of processing, network,storage, or other computing-related resources may vary over time.

Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in thecomputing environment 103 according to various embodiments. Also,various data is stored in a data store 112 that is accessible to thecomputing environment 103. The data store 112 may be representative of aplurality of data stores 112 as can be appreciated. The data stored inthe data store 112, for example, is associated with the operation of thevarious applications and/or functional entities described below.

The components executed on the computing environment 103, for example,include a patent analysis application 115, an optical characterrecognition (OCR) engine 118, a semantics engine 121, and otherapplications, services, processes, systems, engines, or functionalitynot discussed in detail herein. The patent analysis application 115 isexecuted to analyze patent documents and raw data provided publicly bythe Patent Trademark Office though various APIs, such as USPTO Open DataPortal, PTAB RESTful or E2E, Bulk Data Storage System (BDSS), PatentExamination Data System, Open Data Portal, PTAB API, Research Data Sets,Global Dossier, Assignments Data, Data Visualization, Patent TechnologyMonitoring Team (PTMT), Patent Statistics Reports and Data Products andother products provided by the PTO and partners (like Reed Tech) andother patent documents and information disclosed publicly. The patentanalysis application 115 can utilize the OCR engine 118 to extractwords, characters, symbols, and other information from the electronicdocuments for analysis. Further, the patent analysis application 115 canidentify nouns, verbs, or other semantics from the electronic documentusing the semantics engine 118. As such, the semantics engine 118 may beemployed to identify claim terms (e.g., nouns) from the claims sectionsof the electronic document and identify corresponding claim terms in thedetailed description and/or drawings.

The data stored in the data store 112 includes, for example, patentanalysis data 124 a, 124 b, and potentially other data. The clientdevice 106 is representative of a plurality of client devices that maybe coupled to the network 109. The client device 106 may comprise, forexample, a processor-based system such as a computer system. Such acomputer system may be embodied in the form of a desktop computer, alaptop computer, personal digital assistants, cellular telephones,smartphones, set-top boxes, music players, web pads, tablet computersystems, game consoles, electronic book readers, smart glasses or otherdevices with like capability. The client device 106 may include adisplay 133. The display 133 may comprise, for example, one or moredevices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) displays, gas plasma-basedflat panel displays, organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays,electrophoretic ink (E ink) displays, LCD projectors, or other types ofdisplay devices, lens of smart glasses, etc.

The client device 106 may be configured to execute various applicationssuch as a client application 136 and/or other applications. The clientapplication 136 may be executed in a client device 106, for example, toaccess network content served up by the computing environment 103 and/orother servers, thereby rendering a user interface 169 on the display133. To this end, the client application 136 may comprise, for example,a browser, a dedicated application, etc., and the user interface 169 maycomprise a network page, an application screen, etc. The client device106 may be configured to execute applications beyond the clientapplication 136 such as, for example, email applications, socialnetworking applications, word processors, spreadsheets, and/or otherapplications.

Referring next to FIG. 2A, shown is a non-limiting example of a userinterface 169 that may be generated by the computing environment 103. Asnoted above, a patent document (not shown) may include a detaileddescription, a claims section, and at least one drawing. As such, theuser interface 169 may include data parsed from the patent document. Forinstance, text extracted from the patent document may be shown in theuser interface 169 as a detailed description 203 and a claim section206. Additionally, drawings may be extracted from the patent documentand reproduced in the user interface 169 as a drawings section 209,allowing an end user to navigate between drawings.

In some embodiments, the patent analysis application 115 may identifykey drawing numbers that are associated with a claim to appear in thedialog 212, for instance, to visually connect a drawing to the claims(and/or a detailed description of a claim term). Additionally, thisconnects the drawings to the detailed description or the detaileddescription to the drawings (e.g., the detailed description calls out areference number in FIG. 2, and an exploded view of this particular areacan be shown). Also, as a user looks at the drawings, the user can clickor otherwise select the figure number or reference number and see thedetailed description that describes the reference number.

As drawings included in a patent document are two-dimensional, it can bedifficult to understand the different perspectives without evaluatingall drawings and detailed descriptions. In some embodiments, additionaland different perspectives of the drawings and or detailed descriptioncan be used by the patent analysis application 115 to producethree-dimensional models and/or images that can be manipulated by an enduser, for instance, to better understand the claims. Conversion may beperformed using known 2D-to-3D image conversion algorithms, such asthose described in (i) C. C. Cheng, C. T. Li, L. G. Chen, “A novel2D-to-3D conversion system using edge information”, IEEE Trans. ConsumerElectron., vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 1739-1745, August 2010, (ii) C. C. Cheng,C. T. Li, L. G. Chen, “A novel 2D-to-3D conversion system using edgeinformation”, IEEE Trans. Consumer Electron., vol. 56, no. 3, pp.1739-1745, August 2010, and (iii) L. J. Angot, W. J. Huang, K.-C. Liu,“A 2D to 3D video and image conversion technique based on a bilateralfilter”, Proc. SPIE 7526 Three-Dimensional Image Processing (3DIP) andApplications 75260D, vol. 7526, pp. 75260D, February 2010. Moreover, itcan be difficult to apply a monetary value to a patent. Providing aconnection between patent number and the virtual patent marking (via webpages) can increase the accuracy if the patent is actually in use on amarketable product. For instance, the computing device may be used tocompare the number of products a company has in the market to determinethe company's level of innovation or provide a ratio between a number ofcompany patents to the number of patented products in the market.Additionally, a search application may be employed to search theInternet or other network for companies with patents or patentapplications listed using the approved virtual patent listing format. Assuch, patent valuations may be performed as well as comparing the numberof products a company has in the market to determine the company's levelof innovation or provide a ratio between a number of company patents tothe number of patented products in the market.

Turning now to FIG. 2B, shown is another non-limiting example of theuser interface 169 that may be generated by the computing environment103. Specifically, FIG. 2B shows a user interaction with a claim term,such as “bicycle.” A dialog 212 is shown in the user interface 169 thatincludes additional information corresponding to the selected ormanipulated claim term. For instance, the dialog 212 may include aportion of the detailed description that introduced the claim term,defines the claim term, or other suitable portion that used the claimterm. Moreover, a drawing that includes a reference numeralcorresponding to the claim term may be included in the dialog 212. Insome embodiments, the reference numeral may be emphasized by modifyingthe reference numeral text (e.g., using highlighting, applying abackground color, etc.). In additional embodiments, a corresponding partin the drawing may be emphasized by modifying the corresponding part(e.g., by coloring the corresponding part, applying a highlighting to aregion that includes the corresponding part, etc.). In additionalembodiments, a corresponding part in the drawing, such as a referencenumeral or component, may be highlighted, made bold, or displayed in alarger font.

Similarly, the converse may apply if terms of the specification areselected or otherwise manipulated (e.g., the corresponding claim termmay be highlighted or shown in a dialog 212). This may apply if keywords were highlighted and clicked or highlighted with more descriptionin a side window (e.g., on the same user interface 169).

The patent analysis application 115 may also determine and emphasize keyelements in a claim. For example, the term “distal end” in a claim maybe emphasized as well as its use in the detailed description (or otherareas of the electronic document). For instance, while in the claims,when an end user hovers or click on a claim term, the dialog 212 may beshown (or other similar user interface feature, such as a side window).For example it would describe the “distal end” in more detail andinclude a corresponding figure and/or reference numeral. Hovering orclicking on the reference number would show (in a balloon or sidewindow) as well as (possibly) highlighting a close-up view of thedrawing focusing on the number and area referenced (e.g., “Distal End342” in FIG. 3A).

Additionally, the patent analysis application 115 may show independentclaims differently (e.g. in a different color, text or other visualdifference) than dependent claims. The key words in the dependent claimscould be grouped with the independent claims they depend on, therebyallowing an end user to visualize a more clear scope of coverage. Forexample dependent claim 10 could depend on claim 9 and independent claim1. The text could be physically be brought together (e.g., 1, 9, and 10)or grayed-out (e.g., claims 2-9 shown in gray as the end user reviewsdependent claim 10). This process would also work from the detaileddescription (e.g., highlighting a common key word used in the claims).This could show a dialog 212, balloon, or side window as to where thisshowed up in the claims as well as (possibly) highlighting a close upview of the drawing and/or reference numeral. Lastly, this could also beuseful from the drawings to highlight claimed areas with a dialog 212,balloon, or window that connects the claim and detailed descriptioninformation (similar to the above format). As such, a major benefit toquickly assess the breadth of patent protection is provided (e.g.,eliminating the need to flip back and forth between detaileddescription, claims, and drawings).

Moving on to FIG. 2C, shown is another non-limiting example of the userinterface 169 that may be generated by the computing environment 103.FIG. 2C shows a user interaction with another claim term, such as“frame.” The dialog 212 is shown in the user interface 169 that includesadditional information corresponding to the selected or manipulatedclaim term (i.e., “frame”). For instance, the dialog 212 includes aportion of the detailed description that introduced the term “frame.”Moreover, a drawing that includes a reference numeral corresponding tothe claim term “frame” is included in the dialog 212.

Turning now to FIG. 2D, shown is another non-limiting example of theuser interface 169 that may be generated by the computing environment103. FIG. 2D shows an example of a user interaction with another claimterm, such as “handle bar.” The dialog 212 is shown in the userinterface 169 that includes additional information corresponding to theselected or manipulated claim term (i.e., “handle bar”). For instance,the dialog 212 includes a portion of the detailed description thatintroduced the term “handle bar” or defined the claim term “handle bar.”Moreover, a drawing that includes a reference numeral corresponding tothe claim term “handle bar” is shown in the dialog 212. While FIG. 2Dshows the reference numeral for the term handle bar emphasized, in FIG.2E, the portion of the drawing corresponding to the claim term “handlebar” is shown being filled in with a color. In further examples, whenthe claim term is selected or manipulated, all instances of the claimterm in the detailed description can be emphasized (e.g., emphasized inbold or italics, highlighted, font color changed, etc.).

Referring next to FIG. 3, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of a portion of the patent analysis application 115according to various embodiments. It is understood that the flowchart ofFIG. 3 provides merely an example of the many different types offunctional arrangements that may be employed to implement the operationof the portion of the patent analysis application 115 as describedherein. As an alternative, the flowchart of FIG. 3 may be viewed asdepicting an example of elements of a method implemented in thecomputing environment 103 according to one or more embodiments.

The computing environment 103 may parse an electronic version of apatent document comprising at least (a) a detailed description, (b) aclaims section, and (c) at least one drawing (step 303). In variousembodiments, parsing the electronic version of the patent document mayinclude applying an optical character recognition process to theelectronic document (step 306), generating a list of claim terms used inthe claims section (step 309), identifying instances of the claim termsused in the detailed description (step 312), identifying at least onereference numeral corresponding to the claim terms from the detaileddescription (step 315), and identifying portions of the at least onedrawing that comprises the at least one reference numeral (step 315).

Further, the computing environment 103 may generate at least one userinterface 169 that comprises a textual reproduction of at least aportion of the claims section (step 321). The computing environment 103may also identify a user interaction with a claim term in the portion ofthe claims section in the at least one user interface 169 (step 324). Inresponse to the user interaction with the claim term, the computingenvironment 103 may cause a dialog to be presented proximate to theclaim term, wherein the dialog comprises at least a portion of thedetailed description that includes the claim term and/or the at leastone drawing that comprises the at least one reference numeralcorresponding to the claim term (step 327). The user interaction mayinclude, for example, a hover-over event being performed in associationwith the claim term or a selection event being performed in associationwith the claim term. However, this is not limited to the claims section.For instance, the hover-over event may be performed to correlate a termin the Detailed Description to the Drawings, the Drawings to theDetailed Description, or other portions of a document.

In additional embodiments, the computing environment 103 may generate athree-dimensional model of an object corresponding to the claim termusing the at least one drawing, where the at least one drawing comprisesa two-dimensional black-and-white line drawing and or the use of AI touse the detailed description and or drawings to produce a 3D model ofthe image. This 3D model may allow the user to see the full 3D shape,rotate the parts, see an assembly view, exploded view or cross sectionof the part or parts. The three-dimensional model may be shown in thedialog of the at least one user interface 169 or used as an augmentedfeature in an augmented reality (AR) session. Further, in someembodiments, the at least one computing environment may, in response tothe user interaction with the claim term, apply a color to a portion ofthe at least one drawing that corresponds to the claim term and/or applya color to the instances of the claim term in the detailed description.This may also include using text in the detailed description (or otherparts of the patent or patent application) to color in parts or providea noticeable texture. For example, given a drawing having multipleparts, Part 1 can be modified from a black-and-white line drawing toshow a stainless steel part, Part 2 being plastic, Part 3 being rubber,and so forth. The three-dimensional model or reconstruction of thetwo-dimensional images can be generated by the computing environment 103to show each surface finish.

The computing environment 103 may include one or more computing devices.Each computing device may include at least one processor circuit, forexample, having a processor and a memory, both of which are coupled to alocal interface. To this end, each computing device may comprise, forexample, at least one server computer or like device. The localinterface may comprise, for example, a data bus with an accompanyingaddress/control bus or other bus structure as can be appreciated.

Stored in the memory are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor. In particular, stored in the memory andexecutable by the processor are the patent analysis application 115, theOCR engine 118, the semantics engine 121, and potentially otherapplications. Also stored in the memory may be a data store 112 andother data. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memoryand executable by the processor.

It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored inthe memory and are executable by the processor as can be appreciated.Where any component discussed herein is implemented in the form ofsoftware, any one of a number of programming languages may be employedsuch as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java®, JavaScript®, Perl,PHP, Visual Basic®, Python®, Ruby, Flash®, or other programminglanguages.

A number of software components are stored in the memory and areexecutable by the processor. In this respect, the term “executable”means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by theprocessor. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, acompiled program that can be translated into machine code in a formatthat can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory and run bythe processor, source code that may be expressed in proper format suchas object code that is capable of being loaded into a random accessportion of the memory and executed by the processor, or source code thatmay be interpreted by another executable program to generateinstructions in a random access portion of the memory to be executed bythe processor, etc. An executable program may be stored in any portionor component of the memory including, for example, random access memory(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive, solid-state drive, USB flashdrive, memory card, optical disc such as compact disc (CD) or digitalversatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetic tape, or other memorycomponents.

The memory is defined herein as including both volatile and nonvolatilememory and data storage components. Volatile components are those thatdo not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatile components arethose that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, the memory maycomprise, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memorycards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disks accessed via anassociated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed via an optical discdrive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tape drive, and/orother memory components, or a combination of any two or more of thesememory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, for example,static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM),or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other such devices. The ROMmay comprise, for example, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), anerasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other like memory device.

Also, the processor may represent multiple processors and/or multipleprocessor cores and the memory may represent multiple memories thatoperate in parallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case,the local interface may be an appropriate network that facilitatescommunication between any two of the multiple processors, between anyprocessor and any of the memories, or between any two of the memories,etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed tocoordinate this communication, including, for example, performing loadbalancing. The processor may be of electrical or of some other availableconstruction.

Although the applications, engines, and other various systems describedherein may be embodied in software or code executed by general purposehardware as discussed above, as an alternative the same may also beembodied in dedicated hardware or a combination of software/generalpurpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicatedhardware, each can be implemented as a circuit or state machine thatemploys any one of or a combination of a number of technologies. Thesetechnologies may include, but are not limited to, discrete logiccircuits having logic gates for implementing various logic functionsupon an application of one or more data signals, application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs) having appropriate logic gates,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other components, etc. Suchtechnologies are generally well known by those skilled in the art and,consequently, are not described in detail herein.

The flowchart of FIG. 3 shows the functionality and operation of animplementation of portions of the patent analysis application 115. Ifembodied in software, each block may represent a module, segment, orportion of code that comprises program instructions to implement thespecified logical function(s). The program instructions may be embodiedin the form of source code that comprises human-readable statementswritten in a programming language or machine code that comprisesnumerical instructions recognizable by a suitable execution system suchas a processor in a computer system or other system. The machine codemay be converted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware,each block may represent a circuit or a number of interconnectedcircuits to implement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowcharts of FIG. 3 shows a specific order of execution,it is understood that the order of execution may differ from that whichis depicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more blocksmay be scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two or more blocksshown in succession in may be executed concurrently or with partialconcurrence. Further, in some embodiments, one or more of the blocksshown in FIG. 3 may be skipped or omitted. In addition, any number ofcounters, state variables, warning semaphores, or messages might beadded to the logical flow described herein, for purposes of enhancedutility, accounting, performance measurement, or providingtroubleshooting aids, etc. It is understood that all such variations arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, any logic or application described herein that comprises softwareor code can be embodied in any non-transitory computer-readable mediumfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system suchas, for example, a processor in a computer system or other system. Inthis sense, the logic may comprise, for example, statements includinginstructions and declarations that can be fetched from thecomputer-readable medium and executed by the instruction executionsystem. In the context of the present disclosure, a “computer-readablemedium” can be any medium that can contain, store, or maintain the logicor application described herein for use by or in connection with theinstruction execution system.

The computer-readable medium can comprise any one of many physical mediasuch as, for example, magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. Morespecific examples of a suitable computer-readable medium would include,but are not limited to, magnetic tapes, magnetic floppy diskettes,magnetic hard drives, memory cards, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, or optical discs. Also, the computer-readable medium may be arandom access memory (RAM) including, for example, static random accessmemory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or magneticrandom access memory (MRAM). In addition, the computer-readable mediummay be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM),an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memorydevice.

Further, any logic or application described herein may be implementedand structured in a variety of ways. For example, one or moreapplications described may be implemented as modules or components of asingle application. Further, one or more applications described hereinmay be executed in shared or separate computing devices or a combinationthereof. For example, a plurality of the applications described hereinmay execute in the same computing device, or in multiple computingdevices in the same computing environment 103. Additionally, it isunderstood that terms such as “application,” “service,” “system,”“engine,” “module,” and so on may be interchangeable and are notintended to be limiting.

Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,”unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with thecontext as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may beeither X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z).Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and shouldnot, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at leastone of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A system, comprising: at leastone computing device comprising at least one hardware processor; andprogram instructions executable in the at least one computing devicethat, when executed, direct the at least one computing device to: parsean electronic version of a patent document comprising at least (a) adetailed description, (b) a claims section, and (c) at least one drawingby: identifying at least one reference numeral in the at least onedrawing; and identifying portions of the detailed description or theclaims section that comprises the at least one reference numeral;generate at least one user interface that comprises a textualreproduction of at least a portion of the patent document; identify auser interaction with the at least one reference numeral in the portionof the at least one drawing as shown in the at least one user interface;and in response to the user interaction with the at least one referencenumeral, cause at least a portion of the detailed description or claimsthat corresponds to the at least one reference numeral to be presentedproximate to the at least one numeral.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe at least one computing device is further directed to emphasize theat least one reference numeral as shown in the at least one userinterface.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one referencenumeral is emphasized by applying highlighting of the at least onereference numeral, adjusting a color of the at least one referencenumber, or applying a different background color to the at least onereference numeral.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronicversion of the patent document is parsed by applying an opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) to the patent document.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one drawing comprises at least oneblack-and-white line drawing.
 6. The system of claim 1, further programinstructions executable in the at least one computing device that, whenexecuted, direct the at least one computing device to, in response tothe user interaction with the at least one reference numeral, apply acolor to a portion of the at least one drawing that corresponds to theclaim term.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computingdevice is further directed to, in response to the user interaction withthe at least one reference numeral, apply a color to the instances of aclaim term in the detailed description corresponding to the at least onereference numeral.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinteraction comprises: a hover-over event being performed in associationwith the claim term or a selection event being performed in associationwith the claim term.
 9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:parsing, by at least one computing device comprising at least onehardware processor, an electronic version of a patent documentcomprising at least (a) a detailed description, (b) a claims section,and (c) at least one drawing by: identifying at least one referencenumeral in the at least one drawing; and identifying portions of thedetailed description or the claims section that comprises the at leastone reference numeral; generating, by the at least one computing device,at least one user interface that comprises a textual reproduction of atleast a portion of the patent document; identifying, by the at least onecomputing device, a user interaction with the at least one referencenumeral in the portion of the at least one drawing as shown in the atleast one user interface; and in response to the user interaction withthe at least one reference numeral, causing, by the at least onecomputing device, at least a portion of the detailed description orclaims that corresponds to the at least one reference numeral to bepresented proximate to the at least one numeral.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising emphasizing,by the at least one computing device, the at least one reference numeralas shown in the at least one user interface.
 11. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the at least onereference numeral is emphasized by applying highlighting of the at leastone reference numeral, adjusting a color of the at least one referencenumber, or applying a different background color to the at least onereference numeral.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9,wherein the electronic version of the patent document is parsed byapplying an optical character recognition (OCR) to the patent document.13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the at least onedrawing comprises at least one black-and-white line drawing.
 14. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising, in responseto the user interaction with the at least one reference numeral,applying, by the at least one computing device, a color to a portion ofthe at least one drawing that corresponds to the claim term.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising, in responseto the user interaction with the at least one reference numeral,applying, by the at least one computing device, a color to the instancesof a claim term in the detailed description corresponding to the atleast one reference numeral.
 16. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 9, wherein the user interaction comprises: a hover-over eventbeing performed in association with the claim term or a selection eventbeing performed in association with the claim term.
 17. A system,comprising: at least one computing device comprising at least onehardware processor; and program instructions executable in the at leastone computing device that, when executed, direct the at least onecomputing device to: parse an electronic version of a patent documentcomprising at least (a) a detailed description, (b) a claims section,and (c) at least one drawing by: identifying at least one referencenumeral in the at least one drawing; and identifying portions of thedetailed description or the claims section that comprises the at leastone reference numeral; generate at least one user interface thatcomprises a textual reproduction of at least a portion of the patentdocument; and in response to a user interaction, cause at least aportion of the detailed description or claims that corresponds to the atleast one reference numeral to be presented proximate to the at leastone numeral.